The myth of independence: Why you should put service at center of your life

As the pandemic demonstrated, a heedless idea of an independent life cannot sustain us. If we led 'independent' existences, we would all have been left to ourselves to deal with disease, death and devastation and yet, the reason we sailed through was because people, often anonymous, across all professions and sectors served us and we served each other in time of need

We live in a world of increased isolation and pigeonholing. As the capitalist world order unfolds and as individual ambition and competition take center-stage, our ambit of priority shrinks to our most immediate concerns and other people seem to matter less and less. Yet, there is something fundamentally erroneous about the promise of this atomised living - we are social creatures who are interlinked in countless ways and to think that we can flourish and survive in isolation is a fallacy. The world has been fuelled by our collective efforts, whether it is forming governments which administer our affairs or organizations which carry out business, individual progress cannot be torn apart from our collective existence. It is this realization that forms the crucible for the most worthy human endeavour - service.

One might ask why one must serve others when we have to take individual responsibilities for our lives. The answer to that question finds the most substantial illustration in the event of the Covid-19 pandemic. As the pandemic demonstrated, a heedless idea of an independent life cannot sustain us. If we led 'independent' existences, we would all have been left to ourselves to deal with disease, death and devastation and yet, the reason we sailed through was because people, often anonymous, across all professions and sectors served us and we served each other in time of need. Service might not always have a transactional rationale but lies at the heart of human solidarity and sustenance. What would have happened if medical professionals chose to protect themselves and themselves alone during the viral outbreak? What would have happened if people with crucial resources hoarded them? What would have happened if we did not share our grief and suffering? We eluded a dismal doom for humankind only because we served each other, against narrow motives and divides.

UN Women documented the case of Farheen Sarwat, who had worked as the Senior Emergency Staff Nurse at the Holy Family Hospital Rawalpindi, who contracted Covid and suffered on account of the disease, feeling utterly hopeless and dejected. Sarwat however notes that it was the bountiful medical help and emotional support of people around her which kept her from breaking down completely. Upon her recovery, she powerfully remarked, "I'm more committed than ever to serve humanity and I feel proud to be a Nurse."

The aforementioned case study illustrates the extraordinary potential of service. Service is a foundational molecule of the human fabric. We serve and get inevitably served by others and this cycle is indeed what endows meaning upon life.

However, if altruism and survival does not seem to make a sufficient case for service, another realization might. All our efforts, even the ones directed towards individual goals inevitably serve others. In the world of business, we are working to create profits, but we are also creating value for customers. From teaching to cooking, every act is an act of service in the professional world. To reduce these tasks to a logic-devoid assembly line and stray away from service makes for hollow work and little fulfillment. It is like stopping halfway while going the extra mile and that is a journey without a purpose. Looking at work as service and employing a large-heartedness towards it can make life undoubtedly more meaningful and work more rewarding, as from this perspective, it becomes so much more than the mere completion of tasks.

Finally, service is what can offset all the setbacks we have suffered as humankind and combat many predominant problems. When you serve, you do not flinch from keeping your own country clean. When you serve, you do not perform half-heartedly at work, ensuring that everyone who was promised a benefit gets it, whether it is a customer or a student. Fundamentally, if it is our world, who else will make it a better place?

Commitment to service is not just a worthy lifestyle but also what makes life worthwhile. A good teacher who serves does not just powerfully impact knowledge but enriches the process of learning for everyone at the institution. Innumerable other examples will testify to the significance of serving and how it is the one crucial act which makes every endeavour more than itself and the world a better place, progressively. So, go all out and serve, for it is what keeps all of us going and can prove to be a panacea for innumerable ills.

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy

- Rabindranath Tagore

(The author is Chief Impact Officer at Recykal Foundation)